In response to a question about "Other aspects of the instructor's teaching," one student in my recently completed E&M class wrote:
Prof. Orzel gives the impression of an everyday guy who just happens to have a vast but hidden knowledge of physics and the course was taught in that slightly utilitarian approach.
I've been looking for something to replace "Ramblings about life as a physicist on the tenure track at a small liberal arts college" in the left sidebar (now that I have tenure), and "[A]n everyday guy who just happens to have a vast but hidden knowledge of physics" might be just the thing...
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So I assume you are now getting intelligent evaluations since you started wearing more pink?
I think you have to give them an "A" first.
You'll be able to dine out on this story for years, or until your friends ask you to please shut up, they don't want to hear it anymore, which ever comes fist!
My favorite eval was something like "Your[sic] and awful person." Hehe, freshman astronomy was, like, sooo hard!
Doesn't hiding the knowledge sort of go against the whole idea of teaching?
Don't forget to include the "slightly utilitarian" part. Up until I read that, I had some vague idea what the student was trying to say.
don't forget, if you use it you must cite the source for all eternity - otherwise some smart ass student will accuse you of plagiarism :D
My favorite eval was something like "Your[sic] and awful person." Hehe, freshman astronomy was, like, sooo hard!
You know, when I trashed a professor, I at least had the courtesy to put some effort into it. Like saying that the lectures were lacking in the Aristotelean unities (and then giving specific examples....)
It is the vast part that is hidden. Conveying that you know more than what is being "covered" in class and, more importantly, than what is in the textbook for the class, can be an eyeopener for students who think their HS teachers could not get the test right if the test bank did not generate a key. A couple students in my summer gen ed class are genuinely interested in sort of physics I have published, and I am thinking about how to amuse them with it on the last day of class.
When I was a grad student teaching calculus, I discovered that there are three requirements to having happy students. The first is that they have to learn something in your class. The second is that they have to be convinced that they have been graded exactly fairly. The third is that they have to believe that the instructor can solve any problem in the book.
The last requirement is what emotionally justifies the fact that the instructor is in a position of power and the students are not. To satisfy it, I did example problems at the end of each class and let the students pick which one. We had great fun. I would make deliberately make common mistakes and then say "is that right"? And then reverse them by doing something correct and asking the same thing.
Why Math Teachers Get Grumpy
Posted by John Baez.
My thesis advisor had the best eval example, which he has saved to this day. His first semester teaching intro physics, he got this: "The professor is just another example of what happens when Stanford hires some lunkhead from industry who happens to be an expert in some random field." This was not an "A" student, and the subsequent teaching awards show that his judgment about course quality are probably not too trustworthy.